Sunday, February 5, 2012

Lunch Special: Curried Beef Pockets

With Zac in school for the next little bit he needed something that was easy to take for lunch.
Thus, my mutation on Empanadas!
Unfortunately for him we had guests over for dinner and had these :)  He didn't get very many for lunch.
But, what was left, freezes well and is easy to heat up in a microwave.

Curried Beef Pockets
































Dough

Gold Forest Grains Hard Wheat, 5cups
Instant Dry Yeast, 1tsp
Sea Salt, 1/2 tsp
Cold Lard (home rendered), 1/3cup
Cold Water, 2cups

NOTE: I needed 2 batches of dough for the amount of filling I made.













I combined the dry and then worked in the lard to small pieces. Very similar to a biscuit dough.
Add the cold water, work until just combined and set sit in a warmish place while you make the filling.

Filling
I did not measure any of the filling. 
When I cook, it's to taste.
Here's what I approximately used...

5cups mixed veggies
--- All frozen from mom's garden, except corn.
1 large can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2lbs ground beef sauteed with:
1/2 large onion, diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
(chopped mushrooms would've been good)
salt and pepper to season
Curry Powder (as hot as you want it)
Also had dried oregano and chili flake.

For the second batch of dough we
added Tomato Sauce to the filling.
Crushed Tomatoes, about 2cups
Curry Seasoning, salt and pepper








I flatted each round (about 3oz each) by hand.
There's 1/2cup to 2/3cup of filling in each.

The filling with sauce was easier to work with and made a moister filling after baking.

NOTE: The ones without tomato sauce in the filling were eaten with ketchup.  Use the curried tomato sauce, it's much tastier :)

Make sure you don't go too thin on your dough.


The Good-Look'n and The Ugly.

They all tasted great!

Brush with milk before baking in a 400F oven for 20-30min. Depends on your oven and how many you have on a sheet pan.

Curried Beef Pockets

7 comments:

  1. Looks delicious!

    I might have to edit the dough and make it for the guys here. Thanks for the idea!

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  2. I didn't get a tough gluten structure from it, so to replace it with an all-purpose glutenfree mix shouldn't be an issue :)

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  3. Well, its a heritage variety of wheat so the gluten issue is reduced significantly if that's any consolation. Looks amazing!

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  4. Thank you Debra, by the way, for supporting our little farm!

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    Replies
    1. Of course! Your flours are amazing!
      Hopefully I'll be able to place a bulk order soon and use them in all my baking.
      Draxa is part of the 1% of the population that is celiac. No choice but to be completely gluten-free :( On the plus side, his health has significantly improved :)
      I'll enjoy his share ;) lol

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    2. Definitely wish I could partake in your flours, but Deb is correct - I have celiac so have to avoid any gluten in any amount :(

      None of the following, or any variatals thereof : Wheat, rye, oats, barley, spelt, kamut, triticale.

      Oats are an exception if sole-sourced and tested to ensure no other grains were mixed in. Only takes one plant to make an entire batch unsafe, and a lot of companies use the same equipment for rolled oats as they use to crack wheat.

      My roommates saw this blog post and made me promise to follow through with some beef pockets - so I'll be giving the gluten free version a try. (might blog my effort and link to you as my inspiration if I succeed)

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    3. I look forward to hearing about your results! :)

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